Pharmacy -- Again
Tue., January 2, 10:05 AM
Or, it's about what I expected. Two days into the merging of our old pharmacy with the supermarket -- and let me say, it is my favorite supermarket -- I can see that things are nowhere near the same. And I m sure it's going to hit the senior citizens the hardest.
I went in this morning with one renewal and two new prescriptions for Husband. One of our older clerks was there, but she was taking a call. They no longer have an automated renewal service, and the clerks will be on the phone constantly. The girl who was taking my order didn't know what she was doing; she kept asking the lady who was already on the phone.
Despite the ads from the loudspeaker, "let us fill your prescription while you shop," there is no immediate service or orders marked "waiting." They were not ready when I finished shopping.
I told the clerk that I couldn't come back, because I can't drive except in bright sunlight. (Well, maybe I could have, but I want them to be aware of why we shop the way we do.) I told her I would send someone else; U.D. is happy to shop for me. But I can't just hand her a blank check to pay for it. There is no accepting the check just because the manager knows you. Could she use the check with my store card? I don't know; I never bothered with the check-cashing feature because I always pay with a credit card.
So I stopped at the bank to get some cash, which I will give to U.D. along with Husband's Medicare-D card. Maybe I will ask her to drive me over there to haggle, because I have this nagging suspicion that it won't be, say, $90 for three name-brand prescriptions via the insurance, but $200 if the full information didn't go through with the computer data.
I did see the old manager there, instructing a lot of people about what they were supposed to be doing. It looked as if he was the only pharmacist on duty. (They used to have two or three pharmacists working when I went into the old store.) This does not bode well. Sure, they will get their act together and fill prescriptions, but we're going to have to do more of the management and planning ourselves. I don't want to do more, I want to be doing less.
